Lit A/V The Force Awakens and the EU [TAGGED spoilers.]

Scoundrel Yes, he has the sideways grin on. Not Han though.

 

Han Jr? Or maybe his brother, Dan Solo? lol

 

Either as Corran Horn, or new scoundrel entirely...

 

Is that what they're saying in the EVII forum? Heh. There are so many things wrong with that.

 

Oh yeah, although it's buried in thousands of posts about Abrams and Trek...

 

I'm sure this has been said plenty of times, but now that Star Wars is officially in the hands of people who had nothing to do with the original movies whatsoever... how are they fundamentally different from the EU anymore? Y'know, besides an enormous budget. As far as I'm concerned, it's no longer okay to target the EU because it doesn't have Lucas' involvement.

 

I said right back when the ST was announced that there'll be film purists who denounce the ST as not canon for that very reason.

 

Don't even get me started on Lost.

 

I never understood how that show got popular. I tried watching the pilot and already felt it was going nowhere within the first 15 minutes…. 120 episodes later it turns out I was correct.

 

Once upon a time (like... three years ago?) I watched Lost and really enjoyed it. Back then, the only DVD's out were the first four seasons. I really loved the first three, and the four wasn't bad, but had a noticeable drop in quality. I watched the first few episodes of season five as they were airing, but I soon discovered that I do not enjoy watching television series on a week-by-week basis** (although I hate marathoning too, can't sit still that long; my preferred method of watching TV shows is once every two days or so, I'm OCD like that), so I stopped, and have yet to pick it up again and see how the damn thing ended. I will have to do that one day.

*Either that, or I wasn't into the overt science-fiction/time travel stuff they were putting in.

**I may have to try again for Breaking Bad. I mean, it's the final season. But at the same time, every impulse is telling me to wait it out and watch the entire season in one go, that it will be better that way...

 

Abrams didn't really have a whole lot to do with Lost, though. He helped develop the concept and did the pilot, but other than that I think his only involvement was co-writing a season 3 episode with Lindelof (and Lindelof probably did most of that, too). Outside of that Abrams had nothing to do with the show after season 1.

I don't have any evidence, but I'd bet Abrams' involvement in "his" other shows is probably at the same level.

 

Interesting point raised, the ST is basically EU, at least anything beyond the Lucas scripts...

 

I actually used to cast Holloway as Cade Skywalker, but then I found this guy (Eric Christen Olsen from NCIS: LA) who became Cade.



I like Holloway and loved him as Sawyer so I think I could get used to him as Corran Horn. I'm just not sure I want him in the movies...

 

I want Horn sitting on the council not talking, guy in green robes. So I can be like, that is Corran Horn, it would be fan service I know, but first we need Ben and Jaina

 

Well, it's JJ. I wonder what he thinks of the EU.

 

So when you Google "JJ Abrams" and "expanded universe", the first thing that comes up is an article about Trek entitled "JJ Abrams Destroys the Expanded Universe".

Ominous, right? Well, hold on. The article says that Abrams put a hold on the production of new EU based on his film in order to leave him plenty of room for what became Into Darkness.

So what does this tell us about his relationship with tie-in material? That, like Lucas, he could give a crap what they say and is happy to contradict them if it strikes him?

Or that he likes his continuities as clean as possible?

 

At this point, I don't think we can do much beyond speculate. I don't see Abrams to be the type to jettison continuity because he feels like it, for what it's worth, but I guess we'll know for sure soon.

 

He can always ask George what he thinks.

 

Please no.

 

That's bizarre, considering Paramount doesn't allow an "Expanded Universe" for Star Trek - all the books and comics are "what if?" material that aren't even necessarily consistent with each other. Why would they care now?

Okay, I read the article. Apparently, some Star Trek fans are under the delusion that because there's no current TV show and the movies are in a new timeline, that the books/comics dealing with the original universe "count" as the official continuation. (Ask fans of the Doctor Who books published by Virgin on how well that works out) Well, good luck to them, but they're really fooling themselves on that score.
And "Abrams" isn't really doing anything, they are just focusing on tie-ins with the movies.

 

We can't change whats going to happen. If it does it does. I'm looking for a good kick arse movie and hopefully we can get some live action tv and more animated series in the new trilogy. I always will count what came before as canon, no matter what. Thats why I don't worry or get in to many debates with this because at the end, we the individual makes the decision.

 

At the end of the day, I'm not even sure if his stance even makes that much difference ultimately.

If Disney want to keep milking the EU for all it's worth, Abrams can think what he likes. Vice versa, if Disney are hell bent on a reboot, Abrams can have a secret love affair with the EU all he likes too.

In the end, it'll all depend on what the Mouse thinks will make him the most money.

 

It could matter a good bit, actually--look at TCW. No one involved with that show set out to "reboot" the Clone Wars. Each and every problem that has arisen has been due to authorial disregard, not deliberate contradiction. Now, the Lucas outline is absolutely the big X factor here; you're right that if that outline involves Leia dying at forty or Luke never having kids, there's (ostensibly) nothing JJ can do about that. But if the overall gist of the ST is at least nominally EU-friendly, having someone in charge who gives a crap whether Ryloth rotates or that there's still an Imperial Remnant or that Ben Skywalker has red hair could make a world of difference.

What I'm wondering about now is, where exactly did the time travel device in New Trek come from? Did Paramount give him that specific plot point expressly to "save" their continuity, or did they just tell him "reboot our franchise, we don't care how" and he included the wormhole idea of his own volition?

I think the latter is more likely.

 

Honestly I don't care which way Ryloth rotates or what color Ben's hair is. All I want is small things like Luke's son's name is Ben, Han and Leia's daughter is Jaina. Roughly 45 ABY. Small things can have snafus, Big things cant